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Tuesday, March 15, 2016

'Chive Cast 71: TIE Fighter Pilots, Famous Monsters and Wood Patterns

Skye and Steve start their 9th season by discussing the TIE Pilot with fellow podcaster Welshman, Grant Criddle. Yehuda Kleinman comes on to talk about Famous Monsters magazine diorama competitions and Ron "R.A." Salvatore pipes in to tell us about reused wax sculpts. Chris Georgoulias joins for a spell to lend some credibility and to explain exactly what a wood pattern is. We also chat about the recently discovered Ewok Hut and the weird new Yoda from Rebels. All this and a little too much music on the 71st ‘Chive Cast Vintage Pod!

3 comments:

Amazing episode as always, a couple of things I thought might be of interest(posting here, rather than on a forum, see? Someone get's it ;) )I just wanted to drop aline with respect to the Palitoy issue TIE Pilot/ Strawberry Shortcake story. It's never been proven it is connected to Star Wars toys, but it is documented that it did happen to Action Man (the UK 12" G.I. Joe). The essence was combined to the S.A.S Key Figure accessories, which is not an ideal feature to a representation of the U.K Special Forces. The problem was eliminated by putting the products into a microwave oven on 'high'. I've asked if something similar happened to TIE Pilot's, blackberry, but there is no actual documentation to support that it happened, although one former Palitoy Designer said it might have been possible. I know some of the UK guys have taken that then as gospel, but it was only documented to have affected Action Man.Following in the same area, one of the most overlooked and amazing oddball related items are the Action Force toys produced by Palitoy. In 1984 they created a bad guy spaceship called The Roboskull. This amazing toy can be best described as Marvel's Red Skull custom TIE Fighter. It is TIE Fighter shaped, with TIE influenced viewport and uses a remold of the Millennium Falcon's quad gun tip on 4 of the cannons on the toy. You can view a turnaround of this amazing toy here: https://www.facebook.com/PalitoyArchive/videos/vb.612692452195119/773119649485731/?type=2&theater&notif_t=video_comment

The original pilot intended to partner with this toy, Skeletron, was instead used as a mailaway promotion, so Palitoy created a new pilot called Red Wolf. Similar in scale and articulation to the Kenner Star Wars action figures, this Action Force bad guy was influenced by the TIE Fighter Pilot in a similar way that the Roboskull is influenced by the TIE Fighter itself. Red Wolf featured a helmet with snout-like and crest features, with connecting hoses to a torso control box. Pictured here is a side by side comparison along with the rough concept resin sculpt in the middle: https://www.facebook.com/PalitoyArchive/photos/pb.612692452195119.-2207520000.1458571972./626673954130302/?type=3&theater

It's not a Star Wars product, but the influence of TIE Fighter and Pilot are undeniable. This was not the only Star Wars/ Action Force crossover in the line, but is certainly one of the cooler tie-ins :)

I've listened to a lot of podcasts lately. The Vintage Pod is only a month old to me. Too bad I didn't know about it before. I love my figures even more now that I'm aware of the minutiae of the production, marketing,design, etc. This is my go to podcast now.